The Way to Home

If It Were Only A Dragon [Chapter 28]

Celebrations are quite unsatisfying when you have nothing to eat but the same old fare that has been sitting in a warm crate in the back of a cart for a week. At least the others were happy. Happy to not be burned or eaten, and quite happy that we would be returning home the next day.

I awoke uncharacteristically early the next morning. No, I slept like garbage because someone had decided to use my nice bedding to clean up blood and dragon vomit. There was no way I was going to be able to return the borrowed bedding to its rightful owners, which was certainly on the top of my list of things to do, mind you.

The actual thing that woke me up was the grumbling of the troll at the edge of the camp. There in the morning light, I saw his bulky, hairy, smelly form, communicating with the elf. I didn’t care to intervene. Soon the troll was toddling off away from the camp. When Nemona turned back, she noticed my awakened state.

“I convinced him not to try and go off after the dragon,” she said in passing on her way to the freshly crackling fire.

I crawled out of bed in the back of the supply cart and joined her. “As vexed as he was at it destroying its home?”

She shrugged, back turned to me. “I convinced him that he could better fulfill himself by returning to his home and creating something new for himself. And that the people that used to travel the bridge would be excited to have him back.”

I sat beside her by the fire. “You told him all that? And got through to him?”

Nemona smirked. “Well, I sensed in him a kindred spirit. As expected, as soon as I started talking his ear off and explained every little detail of my continued quest, he decided he no longer wanted to accompany me.”

“Accompany you?”

Her hand and slender finger reached out for the horizon, where the hazy mountains touched the sky. “I’m of course going after them. To find out what lies beyond those mountains, as well.”

“To… observe and join whatever bizarre mating rituals they might enjoy?” I said hesitantly, trying not to imagine anything.

Nemona slapped at my shoulder. “If I return to find you’ve spread baseless rumors regarding me, especially in the midst of those of the Ministry of Magics, you will not hear the end of it. I will… torment you to the end of your days, and then have the young necromancer revive you to repeat it all over again.”

I scooted away from her slightly. “Understood.”

“Think about it though,” she said, a smile creeping across her face. “If the female lays an egg, I could steal it, bring it back home, then allow it to bond to me when it hatches. A dragon perfectly loyal to me.”

“Ambitious. Hopefully, my lifespan will be up by the time you’ve become a mad dragon-commanding sorceress… You’re going it alone, then?”

The elf nodded. “That is my style. I have magics to aid me, after all. Who knows, I may meet an ally or two along the way, just as you have. Speaking of, there is one now.”

I turned my head and spotted Farvin sitting across the fire from us. “Mornin’.”

“Good morning to you, fellow brave adventurer,” I greeted back.

He put his head down and stared at the ground. “I suppose the lot of you will be heading back to the big city and your fancy beds and fatty eatin’.”

“That’s the plan,” I said with a nod. “But… you’re not far from home out here. I suppose you want to head back? Tell your people of our success?”

The easterner shrugged. “Well, I didn’t do much here besides gettin’ myself ate.”

I stood up and stepped in front of him. “I’d say rather you acted as my shadow in a fine double-pronged attack. That’s proper military tactics there, my boy. Here, something to remember our time together by.”

Farvin glanced up finally as I jogged back to the cart and picked up a suitable souvenir. “Catch,” I said, tossing the dagger at his outstretched hands across the fire pit.

The young man grasped it with surprising speed, only to drop it immediately. “Oh! That is sharp, ain’t it! Gods, that is a lot of blood!”

Nemona jerked up and rushed to him. “Gladius, you dope! Here, I can heal that before we send you off.”

I stretched proudly, wallowing in the good deed, and feeling suddenly hungry for breakfast. I nearly tripped over the gnoll behind me. “Ah, Prince!”

The civilized beast rose to his hind feet to face me at my level. “I appreciate you saving me from that dungeon and those miscreants. And allowing me on this journey, this adventure.”

I almost shook his paw like a hand, but decided it would be too strange for the both of us. My hand found its way toward my hair instead. “It was my pleasure. We shall be returning to the capital, as you might be able to guess. There’s that matter of the little girl you once knew, correct? I could perhaps use my connections to find her.”

The gnoll returned to all fours and spun about. “I appreciate the thought, Sir Gladius. Alas, I have something to confess. I have determined that… taking to the wild… being free… it is liberating. This is where I am meant to be.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “It is true that shitting wherever you please is quite nice. So be it, I will not force your hand… er, paw. Be free, my friend.”

Prince let out a low roar and dashed about the trees to the entertainment of the other men. Just as I was about to finally seek out some food, I felt a tapping at my shoulder. When I jerked back, the Druid was there.

“Uh, hello,” I said, stepping back in surprise. “I suppose you lot could have made a line to come and talk to me? Let me guess, you’re leaving us too?”

Nariza gritted her teeth and nodded. “Yeah. And nothing personal, you were a fine bunch, assuming you were all bathed properly. I… just had a thing come up.”

Her eyes refused to turn my way. “Something we can help with?”

Her head shook furiously. “A me thing, really. The thing is, I used that amber potion on my clothes yesterday, being that I only have this one set of clothing. Don’t want it burned, yeah? And then your squire had the courtesy to remind me not to drink it. Drinking random poultices is pretty much always frowned upon, of course so I’m not sure why it was necessary. Alas I had already applied it to my clothes when he told me that it was made out of poor little bugs.”

I curled up my hand in a ball before my mouth. “I see. So bugs fall into this whole vegan thing, as well?”

Nariza nodded. “Yes, and well, my particular druidic powers wane if I knowingly consume animal products. In fact, that’s one of the many reasons I left the halls of magic in the capital. Too many leather-bound books, I’m afraid.”

I held my chin in my hand and rubbed pensively. “Only knowingly, huh? I see. Hopefully, there is some renumeration?”

Nariza turned away and looked up at the canopies of the trees above. “Yes, only a bit of prayer and rituals to the goddess of nature. Fear not, the isolation away from humans shall bear me no harm.”

I sighed, stomach rumbling. “Well, far be it for me to stop you. Your aid to our party and the Kingdom was much appreciated.”

Nariza wandered off without another word, stopping by the resting horses, whispering to each of them and patting their snouts. I turned back to face the fire where some of the others had come to sit and stoke the embers for cooking.

I stood before them, thinking only about how I had awoken too early, but how I was too hungry to return to sleep. I decided to speak and announce my presence. “Well, hopefully none of decide to make a sudden change in the trajectory of your lives before our return to the capital. The rest of you lot are technically in my care, and if you don’t return with the rest of us, it could only appear as if fell in battle. And that will reflect poorly on me. And cause me more paperwork. Understood?”

Strad turned my way, a grimace staining his face. “You should know what Shanks already took a horse and ran off.”

“He what?!”

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